Politics

Both Parties Plan To Target Facebook In 2018 Elections

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Jack Crowe Political Reporter
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Both Republicans and Democrats are interested in reining in the power of tech giants like Facebook, but the question of how best to increase transparency and accountability in Silicon Valley will likely prove a major campaign issue in 2018.

In the wake of Facebook’s prominent role in the Russian fake news narrative, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have publicly called for increased government restrictions designed to prevent the weaponization of the Facebook platform intended to disrupt U.S. democratic processes.

Republicans have begun emphasizing tech regulation as a national security issue, a move that appeals to President Donald Trump’s populist base, many of whom consider the tech giants to be purveyors of liberal social values and open borders, one GOP lobbyist told Axios.

Democrats, led by Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, are working on legislation to increase transparency for political ad buys hosted by Facebook.

“As more and more dollars are being spent on these digital platforms, we may need legislation to require more disclosure about political ads running on social media, the way we do for television ads…,” Warner’s office told Axios “[T]he ads you may see on Facebook are not public and are targeted narrowly to users based on different variables — making disclosure and transparency even more vital.”

While tech regulation has increasingly become a topic of public conversation for politicians on both sides of the aisle, it’s not clear if public opinion has shifted strongly enough against Silicon Valley to bring the kind of harsh crackdown some are now calling for.

“It’s not at all clear that people are ready to turn the big tech firms into villains — for national security issues, monopolization, commodifying our info or privacy. People like iPhones and Google and Amazon. They don’t make for as clear cut a target as pharma or Wall Street,” one Democrat told Axios.

Facebook representatives admitted to Congressional investigators in mid September that a Russian firm successfully purchased ad space in the run up to the 2016 election and used the platform to disseminate mostly issue specific political ads. Some of the ads were used to deceitfully organize and promulgate political protests in the U.S..

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